Losing Hope (#2) – Colleen Hoover

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

If you’ve read my Hopeless review, you will know how much I adored that book. Like seriously? It’s on my favourites list and Holder is definitely a book boyfriend. When Colleen said she was writing a book in Holders POV and his story, well that book was going on my TBR list asap. Hopeless is pure amazing and I knew Losing Hope would be too.

I was not disappointed at all. Thank to NetGalley, I downloaded my copy and in two days, Losing Hope was read. It was devoured. I was sucked in and entranced by every word, every page and every feeling and thought Holder was telling us.

The fact that Losing Hope is NOT a retell of Hopeless…well I just love it. Yes there are certain scenes that are told in Holder’s POV but this is HIS story. His story from losing his sister, to finding Sky to finding Hope along the way. HIS story of how he began to live, how he fell in love, how he learnt to forgive and breathe again.

I had seen tweets that Losing Hope was more emotional than Hopeless and they were not wrong. A few pages in and I had to hold back the tears as I was in public. I ugly cried throughout the book, I felt every single emotion from Holder; I wanted to climb into my kindle and hug the shit out of him. I wanted to be there for him, be Sky and let him fall in love with me. Help him through everything he was going through.

If you have yet to fall in love with Holder in Hopeless, by god, you will completely and madly and totally in love with him in Losing Hope. He literally has my heart now. (I say this a lot. But it’s fine. It’s not cheating if they are from different books.) Daniel, Holder’s best friend also has a piece of my heart. He is utterly brilliant!

Colleen has written an AMAZING book in Losing Hope. She has you sucked in from the first page, she has you laughing, crying – ugly crying that is -, wanting to know everything about Holder. You feel. You feel everything in the book. There is no getting out of it and you won’t want to either because you will cherish all these feels.

We knew Holder was intense in Hopeless, but hes really intense in Losing Hope. But you can kind of understand why. I loved that you could see the story through Holder’s eyes. Experience his story and his feelings when that certain event happened. If you thought you knew Holder in Hopeless, you are mistaken. You won’t truly know him until you read Losing Hope.

Holder will completely surprise you. He did with me and there are certain scenes where I felt for him. My heart ached for him and although I understood why he did it, I wanted him to forgive himself, let himself love and this is why he and Sky were so perfect together. They were right together because they balanced each other out. They knew what they other needed without exchanging words. They knew each other well enough to know what the other was feelings.

“I live you Sky…I live you so much”

Just the littlest things they did meant so much to one another and I love this kind of love. It’s the purest form and they both definitely love one another so much that they can’t live without each other.

Holder is angry, hes confused, hes scared and he can’t forgive himself for losing both his girls but you watch him slowly fall in love, slowly learn to forgive himself and his sister, learn that he can breathe again and that Sky is the end game for him. She’s everything to him and he can’t and will never lose her again. It would kill him.

We see him relationship with his sister, Les, with his mum and of course Sky. We see different sides to him, sides you will fall in love with, sides you will want to smack his head but you will understand why, why he acted that way, why he did that certain thing. And in the end you will sob your heart out, be madly in love with Holder and love the journey he has been through in the last 13 months, see how far hes come, especially with Sky.

NOW to Daniel, Holder’s best friend. I cannot tell you how hilarious this dude is. The first time he is mentioned, I wanted to kiss him because the things he says are just so freaking funny. He is an awesome best friend to Holder, protecting him and sticking up for him, even wanting to get into fights for him. You know he will always have your back. The banter between him and Holder had me in stitches and you can really see the bromance between the two. It was lush to see that Holder had someone who cared for him and would do anything for him.

The ending was perfect. You see the closure that Sky and of course Holder needed. The closure to breathe again, to learn to love and forgive and let go of the grief that was held up inside of him. You see he and Sky come along way, a life where they are both in love with each other, a life where they are the end game and are happy together – happy to have finally found each other again.

Although it would be totally lush to have a book beyond Hopeless and losing Hope, I love the fact that it ended like that. Where Holder learnt to forgive and he and Sky are off to start the rest of their lives together. The way it should be.

If you have get to read Hopeless, please do get it. It is easily one of my favourites and I cannot recommend it enough. You will love Sky and Holder. Then go and buy Losing Hope and fall even more in love with Holder and his story this time. There are a lot of surprises and twists in losing Hope that aren’t in Hopeless and you will feel every emotion, and cry your eyes out. Remember what I said….if a book makes you cry, it’s a bloody, damn great one!